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Technology

New Material Responds to Touch Pressure 82

Posted by CmdrTaco from the let-me-type-that-up-on-my-sleeve-a-minute dept.
Vassily Overveight writes "CNN has an interesting article about a lightweight, malleable conductor named Peratech that can detect, measure and respond to a range of pressures "from the lightest touch to the heaviest hammer blow," and that can be incorporated into fabrics, plastics, and other solids. Listed potential applications include roll-up keyboards (hey, I have news for them: it's already been done) and clothing that monitors bodily functions." Hey its saturday, what do you want ;)
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New Material Responds to Touch Pressure More

New Material Responds to Touch Pressure

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  • Yuck, scented goatse.cx spam...

  • Just because it's been done, ... (Score:3)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @09:30AM (#742693) Homepage Journal

    ... doesn't mean it can't be done better.

    New: ceramic knives! Nah, stone tools have been done before.

    New: silver halide photography! Nah, oil paintings by a master are better.

    New: cloth rollup keyboard! Nah, thick rubber keyboards rule.

  • Now employers can make employees wear uniforms made of this material so that employers can continuously monitor the actions of employees.

    I can hear it now coming over the PA system: "Billingsly, get up off your ass!"

  • Surface coating for Test Aircraft... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This stuff will certainly be used by an aircraft manufacturer. Determining surface pressures on test aircraft is a really big deal. Wing loading and all that. If the stuff produces repeatable and linear output it should be just the thing. I recall performing some impact tests on a coating that acted like the multi-layer forms we've all used. Micro-capsules rupture under pressure and produce a color change. Problem was very limited use - one shot then recoat the model. The traditional way is to use prssure tranducers plumbed to a tiny port on the skin. They work but they're pretty expensive and they only tell you what's happening at that point. This new plastic sounds perfect.
  • Dammit, I thought you were gone for good. Go crawl back under your rock, worm.
  • What happens when you spill your drink on your shirt? Or worse, what happens if you drop it on your pants? And you thought it was embarasing before if you had a big wet spot on your pants, now its embarassing and painful. ZAP!

    As long as the voltages are kept low it shouldn't be a problem. You wouldn't notice a few volts shorting across your skin. 9 volts is barely at the detectable level. Place your toung across the terminals of a 9 volt battery. Most circutry is 5 volts or 3.3 volts. I expect it to lower to about 1 to 1.5 volts in the future.

  • But I ask you - what freedom does the GPL take away? The answer of course is none. Your freedoms are already abridged by copyright law. The GPL restores some of them to you if you agree to it. You only gain.

    Obviously, you get even more with other licenses, and you're not restricted from doing anything at all to material in the public domain. But that doesn't mean that the GPL is bad because it gives you less - do you accuse people of being uncharitable when they give you $20 instead of $500?
  • They've finally made Imipolex-G. Can we look forward to human-guided missiles now?

  • [...] a lightweight, malleable conductor named Peratech that can detect, measure and respond to a range of pressures "from the lightest touch to the heaviest hammer blow," and that can be incorporated into fabrics, plastics, and other solids.

    Another (and probably obvious) application of this technology is plasticised sheets of it sandwiched between a bare floor and the less expensive and more cleanable layer of vinyl flooring [flooryou.com] or plush carpeting. Home, hotel or company electronics could detect intrusion by the mere presence of footsteps, or distinguish between behaviors of footsteps (their heaviness and frequency) associated with certain people who are authorized or not to be in certain areas.

    Parents would always know where exactly was their terrible-two's baby [hvmedweb.com] at any given minute, with an alarm set to go off if the footsteps headed into the basement with the cat-eating rats or into the attic with the medieval edged weapons [swordsandarmor.com] collection from Crazy Uncle Frank. High-class hotels would appreciate the ability to track when guests left their rooms, so that cleaning maids would know when to clean their rooms, and long-term-care hospitals (dying homes, if you must) would appreciate the ability to track dementia patients without needing to tag them like animals or to confine them to their rooms at night.

    The Orwellian implications of all of this are thick enough that I won't bother to beat them to death with the skull of a horse.

  • But I ask you - what freedom does the GPL take away? [...] Obviously, you get even more [freedom] with other licenses, you're not restricted from doing anything at all to material in the public domain.

    Exactly. You answered your own question. A less restrictive license grants more freedom than a more restrictive license. $20 and $500 are both charitable, but one is more charitable than the other.


    --

  • I've fallen... and I can't get up!
  • > speed control of a motor by button pressure
    Such a control would be quite hard to use, at least at first. Most tasks we are familiar are require positional accuracy, not force accuracy. Witness the popularity of mice over joysticks.

    Ryan
  • I was thinking more along the lines of...

    Jones, according to our computer, the arm, elbow and wrist movements you make while sweeping the floor are not in compliance with the corporate standards.
  • I'd be perfectly happy to do that, except for one thing:

    I have a fairly common disability that inhibits the accuracy of motor control in my hands...In other words, I can type a heck of a lot faster than I can write.

    I'd make a great sketch-pad, though. :)
  • That makes sense. I've kinda been wanting to try an electronic set, but could never afford it.

    -
  • Most tasks we are familiar are require positional accuracy, not force accuracy.

    In absolute terms, true. When you start thinking about negative-feedback applications such as a "power-assist" to an arm or leg, though, this stuff would make a great sensor material. Current negative-feedback systems use a series of switches; this stuff would allow much finer control of the motion because it could tell between a slight adjustment (very small force) and a sweep of the arm (very large force). Further, as the force of the feedback falls, you can slow down the motion actuator in anticipation of a stop or reversal, which reduces the oscillation that could happen between operator and extension.

  • It's 'Edward' R. Murrow. Perhaps you can get a job as a /. fact checker.
  • "Listed potential applications include roll-up keyboards (hey, I have news for them: it's already been done)"

    I don't think the redundancy should really worry anyone on Slashdot...

    Hey, I heard there's a CNET news article about a wireless device by Sony called the airboard. It's not completely flat though, so it's probably a counter-top appliance, rather than a knee-top...

  • If it recognize the amount of pressure put on a button, why not let it recognize the pressure you
    put on the skin of a complete flat "no-key"-keyboard, when writing out letters and words with a "pen".

    Instead of opening the usual notebook's monitor to the top and the keyboard being flat on the table, you could open up the (flat) monitor to the left (as if opening a book) and let the right be a soft flat writable notepad.

    You would not press the buttons on a plastic keyboard, but press a pen while handwriting your input to the computer. Together with a handwriting recognition program and the unique pressure each person would use while writing out letters and words, the computer might recognize the pressure of how you write (press your pen) on the skin of the notepad.

    Should work. Then we had a reusable notebook together with an e-book on the left hand side. You could actually teach handwriting to kids...And may be even recognize each person's handwriting clearly enough as a measure of identification ?
  • A net loss in freedom for someone who's not the copyright holder. For the copyright holder, I guess it would be no loss of freedom at all :)
  • this would be great for robots that needed to manipulate fragile objects, no more crushing since it is more sensitive than older methods.
  • Hey, I heard there's a CNET news article about a wireless device by Sony called the airboard. It's not completely flat though, so it's probably a counter-top appliance, rather than a knee-top
    Sounds interesting. You should send this as an article for Slashdot!

    OK, back to something offtopic. I'd like to see what was shown once in Star Trek: TNG, that being a roll-up piano keyboard. Just unroll that baby and start playing some Beethoven!
  • You will never have a trigger with no dead zones. It's a conspiracy.

    Less seriously though, why do you play triggers? You'd never have triggering problems if you just played accoustics.

    -
  • Packing tape that warns when it is approaching crush or impact thresholds and sets an externally visible and audible alarm when those thresholds are exceeded.

    Link the tape to a sort of "packaging passport", a device that registers (maybe by a barcode reader or similar tech) who handled it and where.
    You could then print a report of the handling history when you get your package.

    "No, I will not sign for this, because storeman #41 dropped it at your Minnesota warehouse at 10:43 AM on Wednesday."

    Sure, it's not for small ticket items, but I think it'd be worthwhile for scientific/medical instruments, big-arse servers, etc. You could also employ similar techniques for the seals on those big steel shipping containers.
  • Can we look forward to human-guided missiles now?

    Aww, That's not new [itnet.com.pl]...

    Your Working Boy,
  • Had the submitter bothered to read the article, he wouldn't have mentioned the FlexBoard as an "It's been done" item. The article specifically referred to musical keyboards. In the case of a piano, or even a decent keyboard/synthesizer (yes, we used to call them that), the more force you apply to the keys, the louder the sound. This material enables that technology much more readily than anything else currently. I doubt you'll see it in many concerts anytime soon, if only due to the tactile feedback issues.

    Just a word to the wise: Read the article before you *submit*, let alone post.

    Raptor
  • Wouldn't this be great for Virtual Reality suits? I mean it would be better if it were the opposite...Matierial that would "Touch" you back when you "Touched" something in a VR World.
  • This would provide a surprisingly simple way to build an electronic keyboard with weighted keys to feel like piano keys, and a pressure sensitive sensor so that they *play like piano keys.

    From the description it should be much more sensitive than piezoelectrics. Think about it, have an actual felt hammer hit something. Say a short length of taut nylong cord. Except you've got some of this material stretched over the hammer. You could build the whole mechanism as though it were a piano, but without the bulk of all that goes into the piano to actually make noise.

    This should be a lot more responsive than keys that are merely velocity sensitive.

  • This reminds me of that Star Trek where Picard and his girlfriend go and play their instruments in the Jefferies Tube. She has a roll-up piano, and uh... Well, that's about it, actually.

    That was a good episode.

  • Yes, but you've missed my point; You said before: The GPL is like making adultery illegal: a net loss of individual freedom for a net gain in morality.

    So I'll ask again - what freedom does the GPL take away that you have by default under copyright law?

    Your answer had better not be 'the freedom to distribute binaries of code copyrighted to others, without a license" because you DO NOT have that freedom due to the law. Not the GPL, the law.

    The GPL does not grant as many freedoms as it could, but your statement that it results in a net loss of freedom is bogus.

  • get one used...alot of peple buy them and decide its not for them. Ig et alot of great cheap shit that wayh :)

  • Exactly. You answered your own question.

    What kind of rhetoric double-talk is that? The GPL was created to keep people from taking code and using it for proprietary purposes. It was created to force people to contribute back to the community instead of simply stealing others' work. The fact of the matter is we live in an age where money is determining our morality. Witness the Napster debate - most people don't consider it wrong to download music, so long as it is done without the intent to profit (by means of reselling).

    The GPL is a logical extension of the morality and mindset of the people in this community. We're tired of being exploited by big business. We deal with it in the real world - violations of our privacy, destruction of our right to free speech and the systematic elimination and compartmentalization of our vocation and avocation - computers.. reducing our profession to little more than whoring ourselves out to the highest bidder.

    The GPL was created because of shortcomings in the BSD, artistic, and public licensing schemes where corporations could take your code without asking you. This gives you the right to say - "No - my code, my rules." This is the legacy of the GPL - it has empowered programmers to take back their authorship rights. Compare it to the Microsoft Windows NT EULA, and reflect on it. You might find the GPL isn't so bad afterall.

    The GPL isn't about granting new freedom; it's about preserving what little we have left.

    --

  • This is very true. I have an Atari 400 with a membrane keyboard (which I would suspect uses said peizoelectric material), and that keyboard became very difficult to use after only 8 or so years of use, and is now sadly collecting dust because of its near-inoperabilaity
  • The skin of a fingertip is not representative for all the surface of the human body. Sure, there are some spots that are more responsive ;), but all in all not so.

    Where did you get 500 Hz from, it "sounds" enormously high (we can't see/notice more than 70-80 Hz). Also, the human brain does not account for deformed bodies. It learns coordination from experience. A drastically simpler way in the computational sense. To create specialized robots, we should learn from this.

    - Steeltoe

    Complex minds find complex answers.
  • I had to say this. Imagine the BEOWULF cluster of these.... :-) Anyway, I totaly agree with the 'It's just the way it is' guy above my post. Slashdot has missed some great submissions with more interesting data that this clumsy attempt at 'show them diversity of thoughts'. You'd be surprised how much gets slunted for rejection 'just because'. The only nice term I have for CmdrTaco and Hemos is 'sloppy editorial'. Like, where in hell all the interesting, free-speech stuff? Whatever happened to the Recording companies selling overpriced CDs? To Microsoft's Kerberos screech? To Olimpics shutting out Internet et al? It is not us, repliers off-topic, moderated to be politically correct. It is the editorial stuff being too young and uneducated.
  • "New Material Response to Touch Pressure".

    Yeah, it's called piezoelectric materials, and they were discovered during the time that Plato and those cool Romans were out sprinking their food with lead to get a buzz.

    The things that pass for "new" these days.. *groan*

    --

  • Sensitive buttons (Score:3)

    by acceleriter ( 231439 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:34AM (#742728)
    Cool! Now we can have pressure sensitive buttons that report how hard they're being pushed--real applications could be things like speed control of a motor by button pressure. More fun things would be devices that say "OW" when people push the button too hard or that randomize the required pressure to activate the button.
  • Now employers can make employees wear uniforms made of this material so that employers can continuously monitor the actions of employees.

  • No more light switches! (Score:5)

    by ca1v1n ( 135902 ) <snookNO@SPAMguanotronic.com> on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:37AM (#742730)
    I would absolutely love a patch that would go on my shirt or the edge of my pillow that would let me turn on and off lights, dial phone numbers (speakerphone required, of course) browse the web, etc, all from the laziness of my own bed.

    Ok, tech companies. You have demand, go make it so we can buy it.
  • Now only if someone could think of a humorous way to apply this to a "DON'T PANIC!" button.

    Austin

  • my mind must be in the gutter (Score:4)

    by gtx ( 204552 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:37AM (#742733) Homepage
    why do i get the feeling that i'm going to, in the not so distant future, be reading about a product incorporating this material in the back of dirty magazines as the new alternative to phone sex?
  • Mylar(Pop-Tart wrapper) + Anti-static foam (in sandwich format) = pressure sensitive device.

  • Actually, I think the more interesting use for materials like this is giving tactile feedback to robots. That would go a long way to make them able to pick up delicate items.


    --

  • Re:No more light switches! (Score:3)

    by ckedge ( 192996 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:47AM (#742736) Journal
    > I would absolutely love a patch that would go on my shirt or the edge of
    > my pillow that would let me turn on and off lights, dial phone
    > numbers (speakerphone required, of course) browse the web, etc,

    I'd like to be a fly on the wall the first night you're fitfully tossing and turning in your sleep :)

  • I have some material that responds to sight pressure.

  • Application in body mechanics (Score:5)

    by 64.28.67.48 ( 217783 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:52AM (#742738)
    Think of this - make an entire NFL uniform out of small cells of this stuff, and a little box that transmits a map of the forces experienced by each cell over the surface of the uniform. Then you could superimpose a color-coded force map over the footage of the player wearing the uniform and see the forces experienced in, say, a receiver getting slammed by the safety in a slant over the middle.

    Maybe this stuff could be used to improve protection for athletes, automobile drivers, jet-fighter pilots, and that Aussie Crocodile Hunter [discovery.com] guy.

    -------------
  • Does this mean I can finally get a set of drum triggers that dosen't have dead zones?
  • Geeks, it's almost October, and you know what October means -- Christmas. It's time to start collecting links for the multiple "wishlist" discussions Slashdot will have in December. These are some of the most active stories of the year, and I find them particularly fun. I believe that there were three last year, and with Slashdot's recent newbie influx, four or five such items may be warranted, even if the newbies are kiddie lusers and just want Pokeyermom for Christmas. So, starting now, when you see cool geeky toy or something, save the link. To be even more helpful, if it looks like the page may be taken down before December, mirror it.

    This Public Service Annoucement was sponsored by Jesus Christ, who would like to remind you that the only thing He wants for Christmas is your love, and filthy pornography.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Did you see the little item at the end of the article.

    And a "digital scent" technology that could enable consumers to send scented e-mails and smell fragrances as they shop online.

    I don't think that this is a good idea. Properly scented spam? You can use your own vivid imagination to figure out other abuses of this technology. Of course, scented /. posts would be acceptable.;)

  • i dont get your sig. how does the gpl result in a net loss of individual freedom.

    Because you are restricted in what you can do with GPL source code, such as using it in a closed source project or even using it in open source software with an incompatible license. That's a restriction on your personal freedom.


    --

  • Good idea, it would be really cool if we covered a robot in this stuff to give it more sensory capabilities. Like a human being that can pinpoint where contact is comming from and can tell the position of its arm by how flexed each joint is. This has the potential to give 'bots that capability - massive processing power required for a whole body suite however.

  • Sure. It's a restriction on your ability to take freedoms away from others.

    Oh? Exactly how does using GPL code in a closed source product prevent others from using that code however they want? In other words, in what way are their freedoms "taken away" by my behavior?


    --

  • massive processing power required for a whole body suite however.

    I don't know... you could do it the same way the human body does it. Have a higher density of sensors at the critical places (like finger tips) and low density sensors elsewhere. Also, you would probably use some algorithms to aggregate individual pressure points into a 2D pattern.


    --

  • Re:Hmmm... (Score:4)

    by blakestah ( 91866 ) <blakestah@gmail.com> on Saturday September 30, 2000 @08:07AM (#742746) Homepage
    "New Material Response to Touch Pressure". Yeah, it's called piezoelectric materials, and they were discovered during the time that Plato and those cool Romans were out sprinking their food with lead to get a buzz.


    Piezoelectics are brittle, but more importantly they are displacement sensors with a range that extends sometimes up to a mm. They also yield high voltage low current signals.

    The cloth described changes conductance with material strain. This allows a much broader range of sensitivity, and a much wider variety of uses. For example, why aren't piezoelectrics used in keyboards ?? The answer is cost. It costs to have high voltage circuitry, and the cost of just a few keys would be more than a current keyboards is worth.

    The potential for consumer applications is enormous, ranging from sensing body position to interfaces like keyboards.

  • Seems like a very Star Trek-ian technology.
  • get up off your ass!
    Where do you work? Most computer management would link a butt-patch with the seat of your chair. So they would yell "Get back ON your ass!"
  • I was thinking that it could be mandatory office wear for sexual harrassment suits.

    Hmmm...secratary walks in and a movement is registered - you're sued.
  • I need the control over my bad drumming that sequencing offers :)

  • We're tired of being exploited by big business.

    If that's your reason for preferring the GPL, then more power to you. However, the purpose of the GPL (at least as far as my understand of RMS' motives go) is not about ending "exploitation". You may want to read his reasoning. It's much more sophisticated than that.

    violations of our privacy, destruction of our right to free speech...

    And exactly what do those issues have to do with the GPL or software for that matter? If you think you are in some privileged place to see them, you are sadly mistaken. In any case, those issues are much grayer than you seem to think. Listening to Slashdot, you would think the US was 1 minute away from a police state.

    reducing our profession to little more than whoring ourselves out to the highest bidder.

    Versus what? "To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability"?

    The GPL was created because of shortcomings in the BSD, artistic, and public licensing schemes where corporations could take your code without asking you. [...] Compare it to the Microsoft Windows NT EULA, and reflect on it.

    If you selfishly want your code only used in certain ways, then more power to you. Personally, I've released code as a public service, and don't care how it gets used. The point isn't that the code is freer than EULA-gized programs, the point is that it's less free than other licenses.

    You might find the GPL isn't so bad afterall.

    Actually, I haven't given you my opinion of whether the GPL is good or bad, only that it's has less freedom than other licenses. As far as my sig goes, it just amuses me to draw a parallel between two issues that the typical slashdotter would feel diametrically opposite. And yet, that's what the GPL is all about -- "legislating" morality.

    The GPL isn't about granting new freedom; it's about preserving what little we have left.

    Here's one of my favorite (paraphrased) quotes. Think about how it applies to the GPL: "Without economic freedom, all other freedoms are just an intellectual exercise."

    In fact, thanks for reminding my of that quote. Maybe I'll make that my next sig when I get tired of this one.


    --

  • WARNING...detonation in 3...2...1...
  • Oh joy. I just love intelligent, rational posts like this. On the other hand, perhaps you fail to see the analogy I am attempting to draw between the argument "Information wants to be free" which is frequently used and "Guns want to kill"; both are equivalent in that they are anthropomorphizing an object; guns, which are usually designed to kill (and would presumable "want" to do so) and information, which is duplicable with no loss (and hence would "want" to be duplicated?).

    But I guess if you assume people are stoned on Saturdays, then you might be using a bit too much to follow that.


    Information wants to be free

  • Could you explain the difference between a displacement sensor and a strain sensor (think carefully first).

  • Yes, it is new (Score:4)

    by John Jorsett ( 171560 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @05:57AM (#742755)
    Piezoelectric materials are brittle and thus limited in how they can be used. This stuff is essentially metallic particles coated with a conductive polymer, and can be used in a variety of ways. Their claim to uniqueness is that no matter how high the metallic loading, conductive paths aren't formed. More info here [peratech.co.uk].

  • Some application ideas... (Score:4)

    by ltcordelia ( 116425 ) on Saturday September 30, 2000 @06:00AM (#742756)
    • tactile sensors for remote operations of unmanned vehicles
    • sensors for martial sports (fencing, karate, boxing ("oh my god, Mike Tyson just bit his opponent's ear with the force of a hyena!"))
    • input devices for wearable computing (after you tap one spot with sufficient pressure, the rest of the keyboard on your pant legs activates).
    • biomonitoring (adaptive gel shoe soles that register how hard you are jogging; chairs that provide support based on your seating preferences)
    • intelligent furniture (it shouts/emits a high-pitched squeal whenever a pet is on it)
    • Giant dance floors that trigger odd sound/lighting combos (anyone remember coley groups from Shockwave Rider
    • Soldier/Policeman status monitoring (a layer of this placed inside their clothing/vests would alert whenever the wearer had been assaulted)
    • Office cube walls that are input devices as well (embedded phones, temperature controls, etc)
    Okay, that's the end of my two minutes of brainstorming.


    Information wants to be free

  • Please Do Not Press This Button Again.
    ----
  • Better yet, no more lost remote controls (although the power struggle between two people wearing 'remote-enabled' pajamas might be fierce.)
  • Making floring material with this stuff, and you have a pretty good alarm system that detects where somebody is walking.

    Or in you could have ropes that know when they are about to break.

    Or build it into bricks to report back uneven loads in buildings after natural disaters.

    Just some of the non-porno things I might do with it.

  • "Hey its saturday, what do you want ;)"

    Only this kind of selfless dedication to the high ground of journalistic ethics can insure that the beloved /. reader gets nothing but the cream of the crop, the actual, factual skinny.

    Edwin R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather would be proud of the kind of selfless dedication to their craft that makes the /. crew get up early on a saturday morning, tries to remember how many shots they had last night, click the first srory in the cue and go back to bed.

    [with apologies to Walter Cronkite]
    "I'm Rob Malda, and that's the way it is . . . [mumble] untill my hangover clears. . . what was her name?"

  • So could we make a keyboard that automatically bolds (or capitalizes) text when someone is typing hard? I would love this, since I always play driving games on the keyboard (mostly for independant direction control), but want the fine control of a joystick. On the other hand, now I've got to set up my keyboard (and mouse) with click pressure along with click speed and click rate?
  • the next new gag gift: pants that start a large, flashing sign that says
    "HE'S GOT A HARD-ON!!!" Imagine that for a public prank (:
  • I believe the "digital scents" technology was first brought to our attention as a way to enhance... games of course! You would have a little device on top of your monitor maybe, and you'd put in the scent cartridge that shipped with the game, and as you fragged your way through Quake you could smell the hot lava, and the reeking stench of dead ogres, and the acrid burning cordite as you blasted away with the nailgun... OK, not such an appealing example, but it'd be good for immersive adventure games or MMRPG's - you could walk into an EQ tavern and smell the beer and roast boar etc., or the pine needles in a forest.

  • Congratulations, you have successfully and completely missed the point. And having missed it, you are frustrated and take out your frustration by insulting me.

    No one is *forced* to GPL anything.

    No one ever said they were.

    Adultery is not illegal in most sane parts of the world. Immoral in some quarters, sure, but illegal?

    The question of whether adultery is in fact illegal is totally irrelevent to my sig.

    Here it is, in a nutshell. I am drawing a parallel between the restrictions put on code use through THE USE of the GPL and the motivations of trying to make adultery illegal. The GPL advocates always use "freedom" and "morality" as the basis of their argument. However, since use of GPL code is restricted in various ways, that is a restriction on freedom. However, the GPL advocate would answer that the restriction is good, because the usage of the code is more "moral" in the sense that modifications to the code must be returned to the community, and it encourages other code to be released as GPL.

    This is the same argument that could be made of making adultery illegal. Sure, you would be putting restrictions on people's personal freedom. However, that would be balanced with a net increase of morality since the incidence of one partner betraying the trust of the other partner, in violation of the terms of their relationship, would decrease.

    I leave it to you to figure out whether one or the other is a good idea.


    --

  • Re:Robot skin (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 30, 2000 @09:00AM (#742765)
    Welcome to the study of haptics. Sensory perception might seem like a straight-forward application, but it is loaded with tricky details and requires massive processing. Eg: a cm^2 finger tip can be modelled with a 70x70 grid of sensors sampled at 500Hz. Now for each sample factor in a non-linear scaling and try to account for deformed surfaces. Throw in some temporal filtering. Then aggregate the individual sensors into hierarchies. Then try to detect motion or shapes across the sensors. Now try and do all that across a surface area as large as the human body!
  • What happens when you spill your drink on your shirt? Or worse, what happens if you drop it on your pants? And you thought it was embarasing before if you had a big wet spot on your pants, now its embarassing and painful. ZAP!

  • I have heard of ideas like implanting a flexable watch under your skin on your wrist or a suit that can monitor body functions and stress levels and respond to doctors accordingly.
  • Their web site is severely deficient of details. While it is expected that for proprietary reasons, there would be some secrecy involved, the near-complete lack of information draws this whole thing into question.

    Of course, the entire reason for having the story (both for CNN and Slashdot, and the Sacchi award, for that matter) are only for "gee-whiz" appeal. Anyone looking for a rational exploration and supported claims will be, as usual, entirely disappointed.
  • If it can differentiate between "the lightest touch" and "a hammer blow," perhaps it can be used for shopping-cart and telephone-pole collision detection, and autmatically signal a camera to take a picture, or light the flamethrower, or something.

    ___________________________
  • Of course, scented /. posts would be acceptable.;)

    but why would they be necessary? would one persons roll up keyboard smell different from anothers?
  • cool.. if only thay could make this stuff transparrent.. we could have all those cool panals from Star Trek

    Transparrent aluminum!?
    No no Scotty, Transparrent Peratech.

  • Or a portable hand held device that monitors and alerts you to the hard on status of a group of friends.

    This material has just too many p0rn applications.

    It should be banned as evil. :-}
  • I can imagine feeding this information into a "force feedback simulator", and watching those NFL couch potatoes get the crap slammed out of them with every on-screen impact.

    I'd find that MUCH more entertaining than actually watching the game.

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